Part 2: Seattle (belated)
When I left off we had departed Portland for Seattle, by way of Astoria. The drive was fantastic, weather overcast but not rainy. My GPS took us on a winding route once we got about 45 minutes out of the city, over two lane highways and logging roads through some impressively beautiful scenery (as well as some horribly clearcut hillsides). Once we got back to a controlled access road we soon hit Olympia and stopped for lunch at an Italian place near the capital for some rather good pizza, then on up I-5 to our hotel. Incidentally, on the side of the road somewhere around Tacoma we saw our one and only Wal-Mart of the trip.
Seattle hotel was nice, the Watertown Hotel. Not quite as fancy as the deLuxe, but good. It was like a Holiday Inn Express on steroids, with a huge room and a fun little "cart" system where they bring you things on a cart. We ordered the video game cart but then the 360 didn't work and the PS2 games were all sports or Call of Duty. Our first night out we walked over to the Neptune theater and saw Iron Man, kind of a contrast to the art deco movie house style of the place, and got some dinner donuts around the corner.
Since this is sadly belated, I can't really remember the order in which we did things, but I do remember what we did.
Food in Seattle was overall pretty great. Our sushi fix here was from Blue C Sushi in Fremont, recommended by shaterri, a great conveyor belt place that reminded me a lot of Yo! Sushi in the UK. Best thing on the belt was the sockeye nigiri. Damn good! Our one foray into Mexican food was a set of tamales from Villa Victoria in Columbia City which we took back to the hotel. Had no idea it was a takeout-only deli! We went back there later on in the week to a diner sort of place that one of the Awry guidies liked, Geraldine's Counter. Good burger, good mac and cheese, and a yummy dessert apple crisp. Can't go to Seattle without seafood, so we stopped by Elliott's Oyster House for a big load of crab and salmon. I can't remember if mine was coho or sockeye with some sort of BBQ glaze over risotto, but it was good stuff. Last but not least the best (and first) bowl of clam chowder I ever got at a stall in Pike's Place Market.
Speaking of the market, we spend a good many hours there wandering around and seeing all the shops. I got Ash some corgi socks at one of the two "pet stuff" stores we found, as well as a series of gifts for some folks back home. I'm pretty sure you can find anything at the market, the produce and fish stands being particularly nice, and of course the cheese shop where we wished we got lunch, it looked so good! Of course, I made us go to the Starbucks there, because I'm a dork, but there were some guys outside doing a little a capella busking. Down the street was a dude with a piano, and I wonder how in the heck he hauls that around. After the market we headed over to the aquarium and got suckered into buying a boat tour of the bay along with our tickets. The boat was full of chattering, obnoxious elementary kids who were squabbling and discussing their snack bar purchases. We got the good side of the boat though, so the views were nice. Afterwards we headed back to the aquarium and checked it all out. No otters with buckets, but we got to stick our fingers in a simulated tide pool.
Other attractions were the Experience Music Project, which was neat. I really liked the exhibit there on the history of the guitar all the way from the earliest 18th century instruments to the most modern. Definitely something my dad would have enjoyed. The Sci-Fi museum was fairly cool, although a bit less impressive. Mostly movie/TV memorabilia but fun nonetheless. We skipped the Space Needle, and the Ducks after reading what people on Yelp had to say about them. On one of our drives around we headed to Gasworks Park. I want a kite now, and the view of Lake Union were fantastic. Finally, got a chance to head over to the Archie McPhee store in Ballard. Useless junk galore! I spent way too much here, but I think some of the gifts will pay off for months to come.
A lot of the remainder of the trip was spent driving around and checking out neighborhoods. We were particularly impressed with the Ballard/Fremont/Wallingford areas, followed by Columbia City. It's just so foreign to me driving through an area and having it feel like a neighborhood, not a tract house subdivision. And seeing signs for neighborhood farmers' markets! Didn't get a chance to go to one, but still.
Our one downer was the trip home. We get to the airport and find out our flight was delayed by half an hour. We've already got a 50 minute layover in Denver and now it's being gutted, so we're not sure if we'll make it in time. Guy at the gate in Seattle says the flight into Denver we're connecting to is delayed, so we'll probably be fine. And it seems we are when we land and our DEN->DFW flight is leaving at 8:30 instead of 7:55. Cool. But the 8:20 rolls around and no one's on the plane. Hey guess what, delayed! Apparently we'll get an answer when we're leaving at 9:30. Then 9:30 comes and we don't. They say at 10 they'll know if we can take this plane or fine another. Finally around 10:30 we're taking off, not getting into DFW until almost 2am, and my poor dad is stuck picking us up at the airport since he's got one of the sets of keys to our apartment.
Probably the biggest thing I liked about Seattle was just that you could look around and it wasn't depressing. Yesterday when I got out of work I looked out over the parking garage and saw this immense flat boring expanse dotted by buildings in the distance. Not even downtown, just one of the satellite business districts. In contrast, just about every side street or view on vacation had trees, hills, and homes with distinct architectural styles.
Seattle hotel was nice, the Watertown Hotel. Not quite as fancy as the deLuxe, but good. It was like a Holiday Inn Express on steroids, with a huge room and a fun little "cart" system where they bring you things on a cart. We ordered the video game cart but then the 360 didn't work and the PS2 games were all sports or Call of Duty. Our first night out we walked over to the Neptune theater and saw Iron Man, kind of a contrast to the art deco movie house style of the place, and got some dinner donuts around the corner.
Since this is sadly belated, I can't really remember the order in which we did things, but I do remember what we did.
Food in Seattle was overall pretty great. Our sushi fix here was from Blue C Sushi in Fremont, recommended by shaterri, a great conveyor belt place that reminded me a lot of Yo! Sushi in the UK. Best thing on the belt was the sockeye nigiri. Damn good! Our one foray into Mexican food was a set of tamales from Villa Victoria in Columbia City which we took back to the hotel. Had no idea it was a takeout-only deli! We went back there later on in the week to a diner sort of place that one of the Awry guidies liked, Geraldine's Counter. Good burger, good mac and cheese, and a yummy dessert apple crisp. Can't go to Seattle without seafood, so we stopped by Elliott's Oyster House for a big load of crab and salmon. I can't remember if mine was coho or sockeye with some sort of BBQ glaze over risotto, but it was good stuff. Last but not least the best (and first) bowl of clam chowder I ever got at a stall in Pike's Place Market.
Speaking of the market, we spend a good many hours there wandering around and seeing all the shops. I got Ash some corgi socks at one of the two "pet stuff" stores we found, as well as a series of gifts for some folks back home. I'm pretty sure you can find anything at the market, the produce and fish stands being particularly nice, and of course the cheese shop where we wished we got lunch, it looked so good! Of course, I made us go to the Starbucks there, because I'm a dork, but there were some guys outside doing a little a capella busking. Down the street was a dude with a piano, and I wonder how in the heck he hauls that around. After the market we headed over to the aquarium and got suckered into buying a boat tour of the bay along with our tickets. The boat was full of chattering, obnoxious elementary kids who were squabbling and discussing their snack bar purchases. We got the good side of the boat though, so the views were nice. Afterwards we headed back to the aquarium and checked it all out. No otters with buckets, but we got to stick our fingers in a simulated tide pool.
Other attractions were the Experience Music Project, which was neat. I really liked the exhibit there on the history of the guitar all the way from the earliest 18th century instruments to the most modern. Definitely something my dad would have enjoyed. The Sci-Fi museum was fairly cool, although a bit less impressive. Mostly movie/TV memorabilia but fun nonetheless. We skipped the Space Needle, and the Ducks after reading what people on Yelp had to say about them. On one of our drives around we headed to Gasworks Park. I want a kite now, and the view of Lake Union were fantastic. Finally, got a chance to head over to the Archie McPhee store in Ballard. Useless junk galore! I spent way too much here, but I think some of the gifts will pay off for months to come.
A lot of the remainder of the trip was spent driving around and checking out neighborhoods. We were particularly impressed with the Ballard/Fremont/Wallingford areas, followed by Columbia City. It's just so foreign to me driving through an area and having it feel like a neighborhood, not a tract house subdivision. And seeing signs for neighborhood farmers' markets! Didn't get a chance to go to one, but still.
Our one downer was the trip home. We get to the airport and find out our flight was delayed by half an hour. We've already got a 50 minute layover in Denver and now it's being gutted, so we're not sure if we'll make it in time. Guy at the gate in Seattle says the flight into Denver we're connecting to is delayed, so we'll probably be fine. And it seems we are when we land and our DEN->DFW flight is leaving at 8:30 instead of 7:55. Cool. But the 8:20 rolls around and no one's on the plane. Hey guess what, delayed! Apparently we'll get an answer when we're leaving at 9:30. Then 9:30 comes and we don't. They say at 10 they'll know if we can take this plane or fine another. Finally around 10:30 we're taking off, not getting into DFW until almost 2am, and my poor dad is stuck picking us up at the airport since he's got one of the sets of keys to our apartment.
Probably the biggest thing I liked about Seattle was just that you could look around and it wasn't depressing. Yesterday when I got out of work I looked out over the parking garage and saw this immense flat boring expanse dotted by buildings in the distance. Not even downtown, just one of the satellite business districts. In contrast, just about every side street or view on vacation had trees, hills, and homes with distinct architectural styles.